


Shower the Ground with Ashes and Call it Snow

by immature_vibes



Category: Clone Force 99 - Fandom, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Cartoon), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Roma needs a hug, and Roma's trauma, and we stan, crosshair is an asshole but we love him, hunter needs a nap, tech is baby, we will be going through the bad batch's trauma, wrecker is a himbo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29979351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/immature_vibes/pseuds/immature_vibes
Summary: The Bad Batch are fresh out of Kamino and can't seem to get the hang of flying an actual ship, not a simulated one. As such, Commander Cody assigns them a volunteer pilot: Roma Song, who will be piloting them for a year until they get used to flying again.And so adventures and angst ensue as the group fight for The Republic.Updates (hopefully every week)
Relationships: Hunter/Original Character, found family - Relationship, strangers to lovers to strangers - Relationship
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Shower the Ground with Ashes and Call it Snow

“Prepare for a rough landing!” Tech hollard at his brothers as he tried to control the falling ship.

“Oh like this mission hasn’t been rough already,” Crosshair snarked back as he gripped his seat until his knuckles went white.

The Havoc Marauder 5.0 was on her last straw as the Bad Batch flew back into the landing pad. That is, if you could call practically falling from the sky, engine on fire, and sheets of metal hanging on for dear life before falling off, and skidding onto the pad with a noise that no clone or jedi had ever heard before, flying. The Bad Batch slammed to the ground when the ship stopped moving with a halt. Hunter wondered how they had even gotten in this mess as he wobbled to stable himself from the landing they had endured. A mission gone wrong, he assumed. That was a first. Doing a headcount of his brothers, who were groaning on the floor of the ship from the fall, he limped out of a human-made whole from the lost metal sheets of the ship, taking long strides before turning to face his ship.

You couldn’t even call it a ship at this point. It looked like a literal shiny threw slabs of metal together and called it a ship. Hunter let out an exasperated sigh and raised a hand to his forehead, trying to rub away the coming headache he would have once Cody saw they had destroyed another ship.

Again.

In the last two months since they got it.

“You know, when you said that the ship would last longer than your other ones, I expected you meant till the war had ended.  _ Not  _ an extra two months, Sergeant.” The Commander’s voice sounded from behind Hunter, making the Sergeant straighten and turn to face him.

“We were caught off guard sir, it won’t happen again.” Hunter gave one last gaze at the ship before turning back to Cody, “don’t suppose you have an extra one?”

Cody gave him a deadpan look before taking three steps toward Hunter and the ship, giving both a good once over, “I’ve gotten you something better,” Cody smirked as he turned and stalked away, “Get your boys, Sergeant, you’re about to meet a new member of your team.”

“A new  _ what _ ?” Crosshair glared at Hunter as they walked towards one of the makeshift tents on the landing pad.

“I assume some type of clone-trained pilot, seeing as we have managed to destroy five ships in the past nine months,” Tech explained, “Perhaps another mutated clone?”

“You won’t be the youngest anymore, Techie!” Wrecker roared, playfully punching the smaller clone who shot a look at him.

Hunter cleared his throat and got them all to quiet down as they walked towards the tent Cody had entered not long before.

Hunter stepped in first, and what he saw was definitely no clone. The rest of the team piled into the tent and a silence swept over them. Next to Cody was a woman, no taller than five foot five, with silver curly hair cut into a mullet all except two long thin braids that framed her face. But what caught their eyes was the burn on the woman’s right side of her body, scarring her face, neck, and right arm. She was conversing calmly with Cody, sitting on the table behind her and sucking on a sucker when she finally turned her onyx eyes on the Bad Batch.

“Lady, what happened to your face?!” Wrecker exclaimed, quickly being shoved by Tech and earning a warning glare from Hunter.

“What happened to yours?” The woman countered, using her red sucker to point at the scar on Wrecker’s head. Her voice was low and had a playful tone weaving its way into her words.

“Bad Batch, This is Roma Song. Zipper, as we call her. A volunteer pilot for The Republic,” Cody explained as Roma pushed herself off of her perched sitting place and strided over to the Bad Batch, “she will be your pilot for the next year before she joins The 501st Battalion.”

“We don’t need a pilot.” Crosshair scowled at Roma.

“Your five crashed ships say otherwise, Twig,” Roma retorted back with a smile, which made Wrecker crack up a laugh.

“She got you good, Cross!” Wrecker yelled as he laughed.

Roma put her sucker back in her mouth and turned to go back to the table. She pressed a few buttons and the table’s holoprojector turned on with a low hum, displaying a blueprint of a planet on the outer rim.

“Your new mission is an infiltration on the planet Dyon’a. There’s a separatist base in the lower levels of the city Athyns, I need you lot to take an artifact from that base,” Cody explains, catching the attention of everyone in the room.

Roma typed on a few buttons and the hologram zoomed in to a building that looked far too kept together compared to the rest of the city.

“The artifact is an unstable kyber crystal. The Separatists are using it to power some type of saber cannon they have in the making, we’ll have to steal it and give it to The Republic,” She leaned on the table, pulling the sucker out from her mouth as she spoke, “Any questions?” 

“Why send clones and not a Jedi?” Tech asked, his voice finally coming back to his body.

“Oh, a Jedi tried to take the crystal from The Separatists. Quinlan Vos, I think? Yeah, it didn’t end well for him. It sensed the force-sensitive and pushed out some type of energy that was able to knock the Jedi off his feet unconscious for a good three weeks.” 

“Thank you for the subtlety, Zipper,” Cody chastised before looking back at Tech, “the kyber crystal only seems to defend itself against force users. So, sending you would be the next best bet to get it.”

The Bad Batch listened intently to Cody, who continued to explain the mission and how careful they would have to be. But their focus was less on the Commander and more on their temporary pilot, who was listening intently to Cody.  _ At least she knows how to take orders and listen,  _ Hunter thought to himself, studying her body language. Roma’s arms were crossed and her shoulders were tensed, her black eyes scanning the hologram as if memorizing the layout of the building. It was almost mesmerizing if the Pilot didn’t flick her gaze at Hunter with a raised brow, making him instantly look away. 

“-that won’t take you more than four months, understood?” Cody’s voice brought Hunter out of his thoughts, and everyone gave the Commander a curt nod, “Good. Dismissed.”

The batch was in the makeshift medical tent, Roma sitting on an unused cot as her new team was onced over for any severe injuries from their crash.

“You’re human, then?” Hunter asked her, breaking the stoic silence.

“Half-human, yeah. My dad was Ariyn,” Roma threw out the paper stick of her sucker and turned her attention back to her superior, “are you all volunteers too?”

“Defective clones, actually.” 

“Ah, that explains a lot.” Roma hummed lowly to herself, “can I have your names seeing that I’ll be working with you all for the next year?” 

“I’m Sergeant Hunter, the big guy is Wrecker, on his right is Tech, then that one is Crosshair.” Hunter pointed at their general vicinity.

Roma nodded, muttering the names to herself as her gaze bounced from each brother. She got up from her cot and stretched her arms up in the air, letting out a yawn as she turned back to her Sargent.

“Well, Sergeant, seeing as you have absolutely murdered your ship, it appears we will be taking mine until Cody can get you all a new one,” She began to leave the tent, holding the curtain door up and waiting for them, “I’ll lead you to my Beauty,” Roma said with a smirk of pride.

Just as Hunter had expected, there was no hope for their pile of on-fire metal which they called a ship. Roma walked slightly ahead of the group, leading them to her ship with a childish-like bounce in her step. She walked with a slight sway of her hips, humming a tune that Hunter had never heard before. His brothers were idly chatting to each other, Hunter only zoned in when Wrecker laughed loudly.

“She’s very pretty, right Sarge?” Wrecker hollered as he gestured to their pilot up ahead, “how’d you think she got that scar? It’s bigger than mine!” 

“Quiet, Wrecker,” Hunter demanded, earning a groan from his younger brother, but he did mentally agree with everything that was said.

“A burn like that most likely came from an engine of some kind, it could be possible she simply got too close to a ship’s engine.” Tech didn’t look up from his datapad as he spoke, “besides, it’s not our place to gossip about it.”

“Aw, but that’s boring! OH, oh! What if she got it from Separatist torture? Or from some burning building?” Wrecker began to spew out random scenarios of where Roma’s burn would have come from. Each one becomes more and more ridiculous.

Hunter was about to chide his little brother again when three loud bangs came from ahead of them.

“One, I’ll only tell you my sob story if you all tell me yours,” Roma said with a smirk on her face, but her eyes held a dark undertone that made them all still in realizing she had heard them, “no sob story from you? No sob story from me. Two, I humbly welcome you into my ship: The Rose Red.”

Roma’s ship was exactly what the name had implied. The red paint that was rubbing off on some areas, and had black nose art of rose outlines and thorny vines. The ship itself was bigger than Hutner had expected, its hanger lowered as if eager to have the Bad Batch in it. Wrecker let out a cheer of excitement and was the first one after Roma to enter the ship, quickly followed by Tech. Crosshair grabbed Hunter’s shoulder and looked at his brother with hard eyes.

“I don’t trust this,” Crosshair stated.

“She’s a pilot employed by The Republic,  _ vod _ , I think we have to trust her,” Hunter replied as he boarded the ship, Crosshair sighing but following close behind. 

The ship was nicer than any ship that they had ever had, that was for sure. For one, the bedrooms were actually different from storage closets and had built-in bunk beds with bathrooms. The halls weren’t cramped and weapons were stored away, but what Hunter appreciated the most was that the kitchen was separated from the main lounge. The bridge of Roma’s ship had potted plants hanging from the ceiling and an old radio that looked like it was built in a suitcase was spinning a large black disc, playing a song with words he couldn’t understand.

“Rosie has four bedrooms, so one of you is gonna have to bunk up with the other, each bedroom has its own bathroom. The Medbay is right next to the workout station, which is open from 6:00-24:00. Other than that I only have one rule: I choose what music we listen to.” Roma explained the ship, taking a seat in the main pilot seat and swerving to see the Bad Batches looks of astonishment at the ship, “what is it?”

“It’s big,” Wrecker uttered before stiffening instantly and whipping around to face Roma, “YOU HAVE A WORK OUT-STATION ON YOUR SHIP?” He gripped her shoulders, practically bouncing with excitement. 

“Uh- yeah?” Roma gave a look of confusion to Tech who just shrugged at his brother’s reaction.

“CAN WE WORK OUT TOGETHER?” 

“As long as you stop yelling.” Roma managed to shake Wrecker’s arms off of her shoulders and turned to the rest of the Batch, “anyone else has any questions for me? We’re scheduled to leave tomorrow at 7:00 AM unless the Sergeant wants to change Cody’s plans.” 

“What’s with the weird radio?” Crosshair's judgemental tone did not go unnoticed by anyone on the ship as he spoke.

“Oh, that’s a record player from my home planet, I never knew how to use it till a few years ago, and it’s been a part of this ship since I was a baby on here.” Roma laughed, not giving Crosshair the satisfaction of hurting her feelings. 

“One last question,” Hunter crossed his arms in front of his chest, “How’d you get your nickname?” 

Roma blinked twice before a grin found its way onto her face, “my flying styles are what one may call unconventional.” 

Not the answer that Hunter expected, but still an answer to his question all the same. With his question answered, Wrecker all but dragged Roma behind him to the Work outstation of the ship, causing the pilot to yelp but burst into a laughing fit as they ran through the ship. Hunter raised a brow and leaned himself against the wall of the hallway, surprised that Wrecker had found a way to connect to Roma so easily. Well, Hunter wasn’t that surprised, Wrecker could see a loth cat and immediately cling to it for dear life. His other two brothers seemed just as wary as he was of Roma though. A few minutes passed before Tech began to speak.

“Roma Juno Song, age 26, born on the planet Gaea. Her credentials all lineup, followed her five older siblings into the war… She's the last Song left.” Tech mumbled the last part, seeming shocked to himself more than anything.

“Does her file say anything about what she was  _ before  _ volunteering?” Crosshair inquired. 

“She was an illegal pod racer on the lower levels of Gaea. Came into the war for a better life for her family.”

“Shame she doesn’t have them now.”

“Crosshair!” Tech glared at his older brother who held his hands up defensively and apologized.

  
  


Wrecker and Roma both took showers before they joined with the rest of their crew members for dinner. Roma knew full well that her new members were most certainly low on credits, and she had done a fair share of crimes when she was younger and even now, she had stolen enough credits to last her till next spring. They had settled on a diner in the upper levels of Coruscant, which was decorated with neon pink and blue lights and had shakes and fries. Their waitress was a young Twi’lek girl, no older than seventeen, who was practically shaking from exhaustion. She handed each of them menus and told them to order at the bar when they were ready before turning and limping away.

“The matter with her?” Wrecker muttered as he turned his attention to the menu in his hand, “awe hell yeah, they got milkshakes!” 

Roma got all of their orders and went up to the bar to give them to the waitress. Once she came back, her new team was already deep in a conversation about their mission. It was weird to be assigned to a group who had known each other since birth, and if she was being honest she felt like she was intruding on their conversation when she sat back down. And as much as Roma knew the mission was important, they technically didn’t have to think about it until tomorrow morning. It seemed that she wouldn’t have to make a rude interruption as the waitress came by with their milkshakes.

“Oh! You should have seen Roma work out, Sarge! She lifted 100 pounds like it was a feather!” Wrecker exclaimed as he slapped Roma’s back and took a big swig of his shake.

“How the hell do you drink a milkshake like that? Doesn’t it give you a stomach ache when you chug it?” Roma’s brows furrowed as she took a small sip of her own shake.

“We’ve learned not to question his ways,” Tech stated. 

“You think this is chugging?” Before anyone could tell Wrecker no, the tank had already downed his milkshake in one go, “ _ that _ was chugging!” 

“My poor, poor bathroom pipes,” Roma mumbled, earning the smallest laugh from her Sergeant who quickly tried to mask his smile.

“I read your file, Zipper, you were a pod racer before joining the Republic?” Tech asked, deciding to start a new topic of conversation. Roma’s eyes widened slightly and she put her shake down.

“You bet I was, I was pretty good at it too,” she leaned back in her chair, “but compare flying a pod to flying a ship? I’d take the ship over the pod any day.”

“How good were you?” Hunter tilted his head in curiosity.

“Got a lotta credits from people betting on me, if that answers your question,” Roma winked playfully before her demeanor died down a bit, “if you’re asking about my skills as I pilot, Sargent, I can assure I am more than qualified to lead your team to success.”

Before Hunter could reassure her that putting doubt in her head was not his intent, their food came out onto their table. Which made any last conversations go out the window as the group ate. Sometime during the middle of the meal, Wrecker went green and had to go to the bathroom for a good ten minutes, causing the rest of his team to laugh at his misery and shout ‘I told you so’ as he raced to the toilet. Throughout the majority of the meal, Roma and Tech discussed how speeders and ship parts can be reused to create electric weapons, which led to them wildly talking about how electricity can in fact be held in a bottle. Hunter and Crosshair shared a look of dread when they realized that now they’ll have to deal with two rambling mad scientists, but it did make Hunter happy to see that Tech now had a healthier outlet than his brothers. Sure, they could listen, but they never could understand what he would be talking about. With Roma, it seemed she had a perfect understanding and even challenged his thinking, making him pursue deeper meanings of what he once thought was all said and done.

By the time Wrecker came out of the bathroom, Roma had paid for the meal and they were ready to head back to her ship. Hunter watched her as she gave a generous tip to the waitress, who looked at her shocked then began to cry. Roma brought the waitress into a hug and jogged to catch up with the rest of her team.

“What was that about?” he asked, walking behind his brothers who were all deep in their own conversation.

“Oh, just wanted to help her out.”

“Why was she crying, then?” 

Roma sighed, then looked at Hunter in the eyes, “ _ You’re _ the elite commando, what did you observe about her?”

Hunter’s eyes twitched for a second before he answered, “She was young, too thin for the healthy twi-lek weight, a slight tremor in her hands and her knees.”

“I gave her that money so she could pay off her debts to someone from The Underworld,” Roma shrugged as they continued to walk.

“And what if she uses it for spice?”

“Then that’s her problem, not mine,” Roma’s calm demeanor showed Hunter that she had done that before. Paid a waiter a bigger tip than they deserved to help them out of their suffering, only to see their body show up in an alley the next day nose deep in spice, “I’d rather try than not try at all.”

Hunter nodded and they were silent the rest of the trip back to her ship. By the time that the sun had hidden itself away from the sky and the moons and stars came out, they were safe in The Rose Red and hanging out in the lounge. Roma was in her room, probably sleeping and preparing herself for the long flight she would have to make the next morning. All the while Hunter and his brothers continued their discussion on a strategy on getting in and out of the Separatist base as fast and safe as possible. They could never stay on track though, their thoughts always going back to Roma.

“She chose to be a part of the war, who chooses to be a part of a war?” Crosshair muttered with his arms crossed over his chest defensively.

“Who cares why? Zipper’s a nice lady, she even lifted weights with me!” Wrecker defended his new friend.

“ _ And  _ she helped me figure out old problems we had with our commlinks.” Tech added on. Both him and Wrecker turned their attention to Hunter, expecting him to agree with them.

“It’s too early to judge her character, but Crosshair’s right. Just because she joined for her siblings doesn’t seem like that good of a reason. If we want to understand her, we’ll have to play by her rules. Not ours.”

“And that entails?” Crosshair dragged.

“Not overstepping her boundaries. Making her feel welcome, but also making sure she knows that she won’t be staying long with us. The last thing we need is to be carrying around a deadweight pilot long after she’s due to stay with us. Understood?”

Tech and Wrecker bowed their heads in defeat before agreeing slowly. Hunter glanced back at the lounge door and could have sworn that he had heard retreating steps, but pushed that thought away, going back to focusing on the mission at hand. 

The beds on The Rose Red were softer than what Hunter was used to, the rooms were more spacious too. Hunter ended up bunking with Crosshair, leaving Tech and Wrecker to have their own rooms. Sleep was something that the Sergeant was not familiar with, he was lucky to get twelve hours a week if at all possible. But the thought of slumber never passed his mind as he continued to think about the mission.

And Roma.

But mainly the mission.

Hunter groaned to himself and rolled over on his side. Sure, she was generous to that waitress, and yeah maybe she did help Tech out, and sure maybe she was undeniably pretty, but what does that have to do with how he should judge her? Roma seemed capable but Hunter had no clue if she had ever even seen a battlefield before, let alone be a part of a battle. And if his goal is to form some type of trust with Roma, that goal has been greatly diminished if his instincts were correct and she had heard what he and his brothers were talking about earlier that evening. Hunter half-heartedly began to beat himself up over his comment about her skills and before he knew it, the alarm for 5:00 hours went off. 

“What a restful evening,” Hunter grumbled as he knocked on the top bunk where Crosshair was sleeping, “wake up, princess.”

“vaabir nayc Jor'chaajir ni ibac.” A groggy voice let out from above.

“Then stop acting like one.”

The hallway lights were dimmed to a warm yellow and muffled music was echoing through them. The smell of fresh brewing caf and spices flowed through the ship, making Hunter’s grumpy morning mood begin to stir into one of curiosity and a bit of gratitude. It was definitely nothing that he (or any of the Bad Batch) were used to: waking up to breakfast. On their everyday morning it was always instant caf and ration bars. Hunter used the hallway wall to guide him to the kitchen, and when the doors slid open, the calming smells and music greeted him.

Roma was whipping something in a bowl, Hunter assumed it was eggs, and swaying her hips to the song playing on one of the many radios on the ship. Hunter began to move his gaze all around the kitchen and landed on the table, where steaming pastries and sausages sat under a warm yellow low hanging light. Hanging from a branch on the ceiling were dried herbs and lavender, and on shelves were mason jars filled with spices, fruits, and flour. Hunter focused back on the pilot, who had sat the bowl she was mixing with down and wiped her flour covered hands on her dark green pants. She moved with the rhythm of the music as she turned the radio down, and spun around to see Hunter standing in the doorway.

“Oh, was the music too loud?” Roma asked while pouring the mixture in the bowl into a skillet on the stove, “I forgot that you and your boys might not be used to hearing music this early in the morning.”

“No, no the music was alright. Did you make all this?” Hunter gestured to the table and sucked in a breath when Roma nodded in response, “geez, that’s one hell’ova way to wake up.”

“Would you prefer something more traditional?” Roma raised a brow at Hunter who was shoved out of the doorway before he could respond.

“Wow, somethin’ smells great in here!” Wrecker hollard with a smile on his face, “Zipper, did you make all this for us? It looks awesome!” 

“Thank you Wrecker, at least  _ someone  _ can appreciate my work as a chef.” Roma emphasized her words as she moved the eggs in the skillet onto a plate, then set the plate on the table.

“Didn’t say that I didn’t appreciate it,” Hunter mumbled as he took a seat at the table, Wrecker following close behind.

Soon enough, Tech and Crosshair joined the group and complemented Roma on her work. Well, Tech complemented and thanked her while Crosshair grumbled out a ‘thank you’ in Mando’a. Hunter chuckled when Roma blinked confused a few times, not understanding a word that Crosshair spoke.

“He said thank you,” Hunter explained as he took a sip of the caf, “this has to be the best caf I’ve ever had in my life.”

Roma slightly puffed out her chest in pride, “It’s a family recipe,” She didn’t take a seat with them at the table even though there was an empty one. Instead, she went into the fridge and pulled out an energy drink and a ration bar before making her way to her room.

“Aw, you’re not gonna eat with us?” Wrecker deflated as he saw Roma walk towards the door, “there’s even an empty chair for you!”

“Thanks for the offer, but I think your Sargeant would deem it unwise to get attached to a  _ deadweight pilot. _ ” Roma’s soothing and carefree aura morphed into coldness and almost hurt as she recited the insult before leaving the kitchen.

Hunter faltered ever so lightly as the doors slammed shut, regret and guilt pooling into his stomach.  _ There goes easily building a partnership _ , Hunter thought as he set his cup of caf back on the table. When he looked back at his brothers and nearly flinched at the glares that Tech and Wrecker were sending his way. Crosshair on the other hand was unbothered, still eating and enjoying his breakfast.

“You just had to say that,” Tech chastised with his arms crossed.

“Technically, she was eavesdropping,” Crosshair commented as he sip his caf.

“It’s  _ her  _ ship, she can go wherever she pleases!” 

Hunter sighed and got up from the table, half eaten eggs and toast forgotten as he left the kitchen and whatever argument Tech and Crosshair had gotten into. The professional side of him told Hunter that the only reason he was going to find Roma was to reprimand her for the inappropriate comment she had made towards a superior officer, while the more human side of him that he’d like to think he’s more in tune with, criticized himself for insulting the woman who had just joined their team and has been nothing but kind to them before now. Hunter knew that he has no ground reason to be suspicious of Roma, if Commander Cody trusted her then he has no place to question where she lies in the war. And yet he made the comment anyway, and now any chance of earning some type of trust or even friendship was blown. 

Roma’s room was the furthest from his and his brother’s rooms, and the doors slid open at the sense of motion. Roma’s room had LED lights on a wire hanging on the very top of the walls, illuminating the room in a burnt orange glow. Her bed was bigger than the average ones that Hunter was used to, but then again he should have guessed that since her ship was where she lived. A patterned rug was rolled out on the floor and in front of the man-sized mirror stood the pilot, the shirt she had on before laying on the bed, the only thing on her chest was a black binder.

“I apologize for my comment Sargeant, it was inappropriate and it won’t happen again.” Roma had a monotone voice that seemed so empty it made Hunter shudder.

“You bet it won’t happen again,” Hunter scrunched his nose at his terrible phrasing as he took a cautious step into the room, “it won’t happen again because I won’t insult you like that again.”

“... what?”

“Last night, the boys and I were talking about how we should break you into our pod, and I thought that it was smart to call you, well, you know…” Hunter trailed off as Roma turned away from the mirror to face him, and he realized just how far her burn scar went. It wrapped around her right arm and tainted her chest and stomach, and Hunter wondered just how far down the scar went-

A rush of heat flamed Hunter’s cheeks as he quickly looked back up to face his pilot, who had her arms crossed with an unimpressed look boring into Hunter, “Look, what I’m trying to say is that I won’t insult you again and I’m sorry.”

Roma nodded and walked past Hunter, heading towards the dresser and slipping on a clean shirt, “thank you, Sergeant.”

“We’re landing on Dyon’a in twenty minutes, care to tell me where I’m to pick you up when the mission ends?” Roma called to her team as they put their armor on.

“We need to scope out the area before we can put the plan into action, drop us off at the edge of Athyns and we’ll comm you with coordinates for when we need to be picked up.” Hunter called back as he clasped his arm cuff on, “shouldn’t take us longer than an hour or so.”

“How long do missions like these usually take you? Cody gave us four months, which is a lot more time than I’m used to,” Roma commented as she put the ship on auto pilot and walked into the hanger to talk face-to-helmet with the others.

“Hard to say, two months has been our longest mission, but if Cody thinks that this one will take four, then that kyber crystal better be worth it.”

Roma leaned against the wall, swirling the sucker she had in her mouth, “So you’ll just comm me when you need me?”

“Is that not what he had  _ just  _ said?” Crosshair deadpanned as he slid into his helmet.

“You wanna be able to wake up to a healthy brekkie every morning or do you wanna starve, Twiggy?” Roma shot back with cold eyes and a tight smirk. Roma could have sworn she heard Crosshair scoff under his helmet, and from the way his body posture changed, he definitely rolled his eyes.

“We’ll comm you soon, Lady! You won’t miss us for long!” Wrecker cheered as he jumped from the open hanger, that was still twenty feet above ground, causing Roma’s eyes to widen and a gasp to escape her lips.

“He’s fine, you get used to it after a while,” Tech eased her shock as he jumped after Wrecker.

Roma waved Hunter and Crosshair off as they joined their brothers, then closed the hanger and went to fly the ship to a landing pad. Dyon’a was a beautiful planet, Roma would admit to herself as she flew over the city of Athyns. Vines of flowers and ivy wrapped around buildings and hanging lights criss-crossed from the top of the city shops and towers, illuminating the busy city streets that were filled with children happily running around. Music echoed from street corners and there was a marketplace that went on for miles.  _ If this is what Dyon’a considers an Underworld, then the top must really be somethin’ else,  _ Roma thought as she found a safe space on a landing pad about twenty miles from where she dropped the boys off. 

Roma let her mind wander to yesterday and the morning as she lounged back in the pilot seat. Sure, she could be a little too snarky and that can potentially lead her into trouble, but she doesn’t think she said anything offensive to her new team. The pilot groaned in irritation as she got up from the pilot seat and pulled out a music disc, placing it gently into the record player and the tension in her shoulders eased as the needle hit the disc and made a humming noise before the music began to play. Roma smiled to herself as the distraction worked, her hips swaying and arms flying to the air as she danced on the bridge to one of her older brother’s favorite songs.

_ Can’t stay at home, can’t stay in school. _

_ Old folks say, “you poor little fool” _

_ Down the streets, I’m the girl next door, _

_ I’m the fox you’ve been waiting for _

Roma’s wild dancing became chaotic jumping as the drums picked up and the chorus kicked in. As she spun and laughed as the song progressed, her body stumbled into a frozen state as her eyes landed on the yellowing photo sitting on top of the table next to the record player. A man in his mid-thirties had his arm wrapped around another man, this one in his early twenties with a wide grin on his face, and a young unscarred Roma was in front of the two crouching down with two peace signs out with her hands. The upper part of the photo was burned, making the other three people in the photo faceless. Roma stared at the picture with glazed eyes and the music became muffled in her mind.

_ “Come on, one picture of just the six of us!” Hyunn called as he readied the camera. _

_ “My battalion is leaving in five, Brother,” Ceri complained but he wrapped one arm around his little brother with a soft smile. _

_ “One day I’ll join you all out there, just you watch!” A young Roma readied herself in the center of the two brothers. _

_ “You lot ready? Ceri and I have to get going!”  _

_ “Oh calm down, Lika, it’s just one photo.” _

Roma could remember the conversation like it was yesterday, even though it was well over a decade ago. She wiped her hands over her eyes, furiously swatting the wetness away as she took two steps forward and removed the needle from the disc, causing the record player to make a scratching sound as the music stopped playing. The pilot put the disc back into its breaking case and threw it back into the music shelf. She decided that sitting in silence for the boys’ comm would be better than getting nostalgic. 

The Underworld in Athyns was definitely not what Hunter was expecting it to be. Everyone seemed happy, no thieves or shady figures in sight. The only ominous characters in the city were him and his team, though he could understand that much. Strangers show up in black and red armor and guns? Yeah, any civvie in their right mind would be scared. The Seperatist tower hovered over the over buildings of the city, the ivy vines wrapping around the base of the glass tower but only going up fifty feet, leaving the majority of the tower untouched. Hunter scoffed to himself, his eyes drifting from the taboo tower to the rest of the city.  _ Seps are always too dramatic _ , he thought as he stalked around the base of the tower.

_ “Did she forgive you?” _ Tech’s voice was mixed with white noise from the comm in Hunter’s helmet.

“Did who forgive me? That twi’lek from the last mission?” Hunter whispered back.

_ “Zipper, you made her real upset this morning, Sarge.”  _ Wrecker cut into the conversation.

“Now? We’re doing this now?” Hunter gave an annoyed sigh and rolled safely away from being spotted by droids, “she thanked me for the apology when I went to talk to her, happy?”

_ “But she didn’t specifically tell you that she forgave you?”  _ Tech snipped back,  _ “even in the afternoon she was upset, you insulted her lifestyle before she even got to show us her skills.” _

_ “She’s just doing it for attention, I promise you.”  _ Crosshair sounded somewhat frustrated when he spoke up,  _ “now can we  _ please  _ get back to the recon?” _

The tower was just as protected as Hunter thought it would be, while there were less Clankers around the tower, there were a lot more tactical droids. The tower only had two doors on the bottom of the base that would allow them to enter the tower and get the kyber crystal, but those two entrances were guarded by droids and civvies. On the second scan Tech ran on the tower, he found that the tower was run by organics, meaning that civvies, or worse, sith, were inside of the tower protecting the crystal. Hunter knew little about the culture of Dyon’a, but if the people valued their independence so much to team up with  _ osik  _ like Separatists, then at least Hunter could respect the civvies for sticking to their morals. Even if the morals would just bring every other planet to hell. After half an hour apart, the batch met up in a forested area forty yards away from the tower.

“Good news, the tower itself only holds thirty civvies, bad news is that those thirty civvies are most likely trained in combat,” Crosshair said.

“We can take 'em all down in one go!” Wrecker’s loud voice echoed through the forest, earning glares from his brothers, “sorry,” he whispered with a sheepish grin.

“The people of Dyon’a are born with a type of illusion ability, they can make anyone hallucinate anything if they want. When we take the tower, we’ll have to be extremely cautious.” Tech explained, “if a Dyon’an got into one of our minds, they would be able to see everything we have been through and use it to their advantage.”

“Let’s comm Zipper and come up with a plan on the ship,” Hunter commanded, his arms crossed over his chest and lost in thoughts, already creating battle strategies in his head.

The comm to the ship was static for a good few seconds before Roma answered,  _ “Recon done already?”  _ She asked, sounding somewhat out of breath.

“Yeah, we’ll walk back to where you dropped us off and come up with a plan together when we get back on the ship,” Hunter kept his guard up as he spoke into his comm.

_ “Alright I’ll see you there, Sergeant.”  _ The comm cut off as the batch made their way back to the rendezvous. 

Hunter could see The Rose Red land and its hanger drop open, Roma leaning on the wall of the ship. She waved them in, taking a few steps off of the hanger and jumped lightly on the ground with a smile.

“I saw a market place in the city with music, thought maybe we could get dinner there? Get to know the people of Athyns.” Roma had a hesitant smile on her face as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“Zipper, we don’t have money.” Hunter deadpanned, but Roma just grinned and pulled out her wallet and revealed four credit chips.

“Grabbed these off of some poor sucker in Coruscant, checked and each chip has 2,000 credits on them each.” Roma said all of this with a prideful smirk, “so can we go to the marketplace, Sergeant?” 

“If we somehow integrated with the civvies, we could get ourselves prepared for if we have to fight them,” Tech chimed in, seeming very persistent on going into town.

“Or it becomes a waste of time that bites us in our asses at the end of the mission.” Crosshair countered, toothpick already in his mouth.

Both men stared at Hunter for the final say, but Hunter was focused on Roma. Her bottom eyelids were red and her lips looked like they were bit into as if to silence crying.

And Hunter knew the look all too well. “Change into your civvies, boys. We won’t be there for long.”

Roma looked surprised before thanking him, walking back into the ship with Tech as the two began to blabber about what they could find in the marketplace. Later, Hunter would ask Roma why she was crying while she waited for them to return. But for now, he just wanted to change out of his armor and get food. 


End file.
